Bective travelled to Ballinlough for this Premiership div. 6 semi-final on a windy and rainy Wednesday evening. The pitch was in great shape and a tight and tough encounter was expected. Both clubs had 1st team championship matches fixed for the coming weekend and 5 or 6 regular players were required to focus on the preparation for this first round match. Bective Manager Paddy Farrelly and his mentors Charlie Dowdall, John Gleeson and David Cassidy pulled out all the stops and with a number of positional changes delivered a balanced team and 6 subs. Bective, playing with the strong wind, took the game to Ballinlough and worked the ball well in the middle third. Declan McGuinness, with a fine performance in a Bective jersey, pointed after a hard run on 8 minutes. Paul McCabe, returning from injury, kicked over from a tight angle on 9 minutes. Ballinlough were winning equal possession but were finding it hard to score against the stiff breeze until Peader Byrne pointed a free kick on 11 minutes. Bective defended effectively with extra support from forwards Marc Walsh, McCabe, McGuinness and Pauric Mc Connell working back and scoring opportunities were few with both sides clocking up the wides until Ballinlough pointed to draw level on 28 minutes. David Keating came into the Bective attack. Bective kept working on creating chances and Jarlath Brennan pointed on 30 minutes to conclude the first half scoring. Bective 0 – 3, Ballinlough 0 – 2.
Ballinlough, now with the wind, piled on the pressure and pointed on the 6th and 8th minutes to go ahead for the first time. Bective responded well as a team and Brian Cantwell fired over on 10 minutes followed by McGuinness’s second point on 11 minutes. Another period of patiently managing the ball into scoring positions only resulted in a few Bective kicks dropping short and wides for Ballinlough at the other end. Bective’s work rate was impressive and they tactically minimised threats from the high fielding and direct running of Byrne. Dara Maguire kept close to Ballinlough’ s full forward Simon Deevy who had created most of Ballinlough’ s scoring in the group game when these two sides met earlier. Maguire was supported, in particular, by Jarlath Brennan, Colm Barry, Ciaran Casey and Eanna Reilly in closing down the Ballinlough threat. Traditional defending only would not get the job done and Bective backs went forward regularly to support midfielders Ciaran Reilly and Mikey Reilly and ball carrying forwards McGuinness, McCabe and Craig Roche. Michael Lyness and Dylan Cassidy came into the Bective forward line. Ballinlough contributed fully to this exciting match and pushed in front with points on 21st and 26th minutes. Gary Brennan in the Bective goals had to meet a Deevy challenge in the air to thump clear a high ball and minutes later time he timed his challenge perfectly to dispossess Byrne as he bore down on goal. Bective kept their belief and knew that they had more in the tank and Roche attacked at pace and released to Dylan Cassidy to his right. Cassidy kept his cool and slotted to the back of the net with his left footed shot on 28 minutes. Bective now 2 points up defended furiously and restricted Ballinlough to a couple of half chances and see the game out with 2 points to spare. Bective 1 – 5, Ballinlough 0 – 6.
Bective team: Gary Brennan, Simon Heneghan, Dara Maguire, Colm Barry, Ciaran Casey, Jarlath Brennan, Eanna Reilly, Ciaran Reilly, Mikey Reilly, Marc Walsh, Craig Roche, Declan McGuinness, Paul McCabe, Brian Cantwell, Pauric Mc Connell, Robbie Corcoran, Niall Davis, David Fitzpatrick, Tomas Tiernan and Shane Barry
